Over the last 6 months, Lewes District Food Partnership have awarded grants to local groups fighting food insecurity by building community capacity. In this guest blog, Judith and Sarah from Inroads Productions tell us about their DIGGING DOWN project. Funding from LDFP was put towards a sharing event that celebrated the simple joys of growing your own. Read on to discover more about this intriguing project to explore the innate creativity of local growers.
DIGGING DOWN was a creative community project developed and delivered by Lewes based professional Theatre Company Inroads Productions.
The 9-month project focused on the growing and sharing of food. Interviews were had with x17 individuals from Lewes Food Bank; Lewes District Food Partnership; Lewes Town Council; Mosiac, Lewes; Common Cause; Landport Community Garden; Landport Foodbank; Lewes FC Community Allotment; Highdown Community Allotment; Lewes History Group; Lewes Priory Community Allotment; Lewes Town Council Allotments; Peacehaven Community Orchard; Newhaven Nippers; Greenhaven’s Network and SCDA.
Oral histories were painstakingly collected and transcribed from 22 people between the ages of 25 -90 representing a variety of organisations and/or ways of growing and delivering food. Taking themes and inspiration from the initial outreach conversations, the experienced team of workshop leaders delivered 21 creative workshop sessions to a total of 79 individuals aged between 8 and 90.
In all 73 individual art works and 68 pieces of creative writing were facilitated and gathered.
All who took part in DIGGING DOWN were invited to join for lunch and conversation at All Saints Centre Lewes. The space was decorated to feel as though people were in a beautiful allotment full of the paraphernalia of gardening and wonderful produce, plants, flowers, food plus facts and figures about food production and climate change – all alongside the creative responses of everyone who had taken part in the project.
A substantial buffet lunch supported by Lewes Food Partnership was provided by Seven Sisters Spice supplemented by tea and homemade cakes in the afternoon. Local fresh produce and flowers that were part of the display (radishes, courgettes, aubergines, herbs, tomatoes, beans) and packets of seeds for vegetables and herbs were taken away by participants as they left.
Over 75 people took part in the Sharing Event including those who were brought by carers and support workers. Feedback was overwhelming positive:
• 100% of those asked at the end of the project stated that involvement in DIGGING DOWN had made them feel more confident in arts projects in general and trying something new (eg writing, drawing, singing)
• Over 73% of participants in the project fed back that involvement in DIGGING DOWN had had a positive impact on their health & wellbeing.
• At the Sharing Event 25% participants who took part in the ‘token in a jar’ evaluation stated that DIGGING DOWN had inspired them to know more about community garden or allotment in the area; 40% said it had inspired them grow something from seed and 35% reported that the project had inspired them to do something creative.
A participant response summed up the feelings of many: “I can’t tell you how special yesterday’s Digging Down event was for me. The room looked stunningly beautiful, there were lots of thoroughly enjoyable activities, the food was delicious, the music was extraordinary, and the company was joyous, but it was the performance of your script that was my highlight. Thank you for …..gathering so many very creative people to support the whole artistic process.”
Contribution by Sarah Clifford and Judith Hibberd of Inroads productions. To find out more about Inroads, you can check out their social media here: Inroads Productions (@inroads_productions) • Instagram photos and videos